Elizabethan Bear & Bull Baiting (2024)

Elizabethan Bear & Bull Baiting (1)

Elizabethan Bear & Bull Baiting (2)

  • Interesting Facts and information about Elizabethan Bear & Bull Baiting
  • Description of Elizabethan Bear & Bull Baiting
  • The London venues for Elizabethan Bear & Bull Baiting
  • Gambling on Elizabethan Bear & Bull Baiting and cock fighting contests

Picture of Bear Baiting

Elizabethan Sports - Elizabethan Bear & Bull Baiting

Elizabethan Bear & Bull Baiting were immensely popular sports during the Elizabethan era. Even Queen Elizabeth was pleased to spend an afternoon watching these bloodthirsty forms of entertainment. Bull baiting had been introduced to England during the Medieval period of the 1200's - nearly every town in Elizabethan England boasted a Bull and Bear baiting ring.

Elizabethan Sports

Elizabethan Era Index

Seen as a great sporting and gambling event it was patronised by all classes of Elizabethans including the Queen, courtiers and foreign ambassadors. Vast amounts of money were waged on the outcome of the these contests.

Elizabethan Venues for Bear & Bull Baiting

Bear baiting and Bull baiting took place in purpose built arenas. The most famous London arena, called a Bear Garden, for Bear Baiting was in Paris Garden in Southwark.

The most famous London arena for Bull Baiting was called the Bull Ring Theatre. The Audience capacity for Bull and Bear Baiting was up to 1000 people. Gambling was a major feature. The arenas had protective walls around them made made of stone (flint). The seating arrangements for the spectators were tiered benches.

Elizabethan Bull Baiting

Bull baiting was a contest in which trained bulldogs attacked tethered bulls. The bull, with a rope tied round the root of his horns, would be fastened to a stake with an iron ring in it, situated in the centre of the ring. The rope was about 15 feet long, so that the animal was confined to a space of 30 feet diameter. The owners of the dogs stood round this circle, each holding their dog by its ears, and when the sport began, one of the dogs would be let loose. The bull was baited for about an hour. Bull-Baiting and Bear-Baiting was extremely similar, except that Bull-Baiting was more common in England due to the scarcity and cost of bears.

Elizabethan Bear Baiting

Bull baiting was a contest in which the bear was chained to a stake by one hind leg or by the neck and worried by dogs. The whipping of a blinded bear was another variation of bear-baiting. Queen Elizabeth attended a famous baiting which was described by an Elizabethan chronicler called Robert Laneham as follows:

"... it was a sport very pleasant to see, to see the bear, with his pink eyes, tearing after his enemies approach; the nimbleness and wait of the dog to take his advantage and the force and experience of the bear again to avoid his assaults: if he were bitten in one place how he would pinch in another to get free; that if he were taken once, then by what shift with biting, with clawing, with roaring, with tossing and tumbling he would work and wind himself from them; and when he was loose to shake his ears twice or thrice with the blood and the slaver hanging about his physiognomy."

Elizabethan Bear & Bull Baiting and the Elizabethan Theatre

Theatrical Performances proved to be so popular that in 1591 the growing popularity of theatres led to a law closing all theatres on Thursdays so that the bull and bear baiting industries would not be neglected!

Elizabethan Bear & Bull Baiting (3)

Elizabethan Bear & Bull Baiting (4)

Elizabethan Bear & Bull Baiting (5)

Picture of Bull Baiting

Picture of Cock Fighting

Elizabethan Cock Fighting

Cock fighting was another popular Elizabethan blood sport. Roosters were fitted with sharp blades on each foot and put into a cock pit to fight to the death. Fighting cocks were expensive, so it took a wealthy man to own these birds, but Elizabethans from both the Upper and Lower Classes came to see and bet on these cock fights.

Interesting Facts and Information about Elizabethan Sports and Elizabethan Bear & Bull Baiting

Some interesting facts and information about the Elizabethan Sports of Elizabethan Bear & Bull Baiting. Bear-baiting and bull-baiting were prohibited by act of parliament in 1835.

Elizabethan Elizabethan Bear & Bull Baiting

Details, facts and information about the Elizabethan Bear & Bull Baiting and Elizabethan Sports can be accessed via the Elizabethan Era Sitemap.

Elizabethan Bear & Bull Baiting

  • Interesting Facts and information about Elizabethan Bear & Bull Baiting
  • Description of Elizabethan Bear Baiting
  • Description of Elizabethan Bull Baiting
  • The London venues for Elizabethan Bear & Bull Baiting
  • Gambling on Elizabethan Bear & Bull Baiting contests
  • Cock Fighting

Elizabethan Bear & Bull Baiting (6)

Elizabethan Bear & Bull Baiting (7)

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Elizabethan Bear & Bull Baiting (2024)
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